An Owl's Perspective
by starspangledpumpkin
Summary: First impressions are everything. So what is an owl's first impression of the wizards? And perhaps when an owl meets their companion?


**Well, this happened. This was for the monthly prompt for Ilvermorny School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.**

It was noisy.

So unbelievably noisy.

Cramped too.

The chatter of dozens if not hundreds of voices spilled over perches and flooded the entire room. There was hardly enough room to stretch and the only time you could was if you were chosen and you were allowed to finally leave. There was always a desire for pets so animals came and went from the shop. The place was rather small, so cages were stacked on the walls and the cats were allowed to take over any of the extras.

A snowy white owl puffed up her wings and shuddered. She was still young but she spent half her life under the scrutiny of those big, hairless creatures.

Buniq is what she was called. She was the smallest of her siblings but still strong. Even when her feathers were dark and soft she longed to help her parents hunt. She was born in a little nest her mother and father dug for them. She and her six siblings would practice their vocal range and sing all night until food came and then it was time for rest once the sun came up.

It was in a beautiful place where they could see the sky at night amongst the thicket and the trees. Millions of stars. Mother always said the stars were the souls of their ancestors looking down on them. Unable to meddle but to be there as guidance. A constant so that as long as they shone you could never be lost.

Out of all of her siblings, Buniq was the most outgoing. Akiak was hatched first but he was content to nest. Once he was on his own he would start a family. Cikuq and Desna hatched at the same time and were the quietest of all of them choosing instead to chirp to each other about their ideas of what the world was like and the animals that sniffed around the nest. Eska was looking forward to the day she could lay her own eggs and Genen? Genen was… Genen. He enjoyed watching the stars more than any of them and claimed they spoke to him. Mother and Father didn't know what to make of it either but when you were in tight quarters as long as somebody didn't start trouble everything was fine.

Buniq often got into trouble but not for fighting with her siblings.

"When can I join you and Father hunting?" Buniq asked as she was once again ushered into her nest after an unsuccessful attempt at escaping.

"Once your feathers turn white like snow," said Mother with an amused glint in her amber eye.

"But I'm bored," she whined and hopped on the edge of the nest her soft feet grasping onto the twigs and bits of mud she had grown so familiar with. "I want to see the world not the sides of this stinky nest."

"You'll get your chance, Buniq," said Mother. "When you're ready, you will leave."

"I'm ready now!" she said, puffing up to make herself bigger. "I'm not afraid of anything!"

"Of course not."

"You just need patience," said Akiak donning the wise old owl tone Father always had.

"I already have two parents, thanks," Buniq muttered.

"You'll get your chance," said Genen in that serene voice of his. "Something big is coming. The stars say so."

"Mother! Genen is being weird again," Eska whined.

"Hush," Mother chided.

Even so, they all paid no mind to what Genen said and they continued to grow, their black fluff molting into beautiful white feathers.

Then, the hairless creatures came. They tramped around the forest scaring everything for miles around. They could be felt shaking the earth and all the animals in the forest scattered. There were tales of flatfaced creatures with no hair on their faces and odd colored skin they could removed as they so pleased. They also carried sticks that killed other creatures with a loud noise.

Buniq thought they would be safe in their nest but these hunters knew exactly where they were. Mother and Father were out hunting leaving just her and her siblings. They screeched and cried at the two flatfaces knelt over the nest. One had very large ears and the other wore something strange on its head. She would later learn that it is called a hat. The larger of the two (the one with the large ears) brandished a stick and this terrified them all the more. They hadn't even begun to fly yet. Buniq closed her eyes and waited for the sound that signaled the end of her life.

But it never came.

Instead, a hairless paw like a raccoon grabbed her legs and hoisted her out of her nest with her siblings screaming and pecking at the attacker but they paid the siblings no heed.

"Bar barbarbar barbar bar babar," they chattered.

Or that's what it sounded like.

Buniq didn't understand them at all and for once in her life she was terrified of the unknown. She understood nothing until she was poked with one of those sticks. She shuddered as it felt like water was poured out of her ears, like the time she accidentally slept on her side and rain water got in. And then she understood.

"We'll take this one to the reserve near Hogwarts," said the male flatface with the large ears.

No.

She wasn't ready. She didn't want to leave her nest. She didn't want to go with these flatfaces. She screeched and flapped her wings angrily but she was still soft and weak so not much could be done. They placed her in an odd sort of nest. It was round and made of the thinnest sticks she'd ever seen. She didn't like it one bit and tried to bite at them but it did nothing. There were at least a dozen other owls around her crying and screeching.

Something dark was thrown over them and they immediately silenced in the void. Hearts pounding wildly. None of them dared to say anything and their eyes couldn't detect a single shred of sunlight.

The next time she saw light, she didn't recognize anything. It was forest but it wasn't her home. No… this was someplace new. There were rows of brown, wooden boxes and owls only a few moons older than her flew in and out of them.

The two male flatfaces took the cages and brought them to a female flatface.

"Our wands detected these as fit for our new owls," said the one with the big ears.

"Good," she replied. "Can't have any inbreeding. Take this lot over to the new training group."

Buniq was taken over to one of the brown rectangles, the sides had more of the shiny twigs over the sides. As soon as all of them were inside, the rectangle was closed and they were left to their own devices. Still small, most of them couldn't even fly. Buniq flapped her wings as hard as she could but couldn't do more than just jump from branch to branch.

A large male owl with brown feathers and one light brown owl, with the widest pupils Buniq had ever seen, giving the female a permanently shocked look, had landed near the box.

"New recruits," said the male.

"What is this place?" Buniq asked. "I want to go back to my nest!"

"Oh, don't worry little one," said the she-owl. "These wizards are good. They are just training us to be mail deliverers and companions for their kind. We'll get to travel all over after we leave. I am Cordiss and this is Eetu."

Mail? What was mail?

"We'll be teaching you how to fly," said Eetu, fluffing up importantly. "You're nearly old enough. What does your mother call you?"

"Buniq."

"Do not expect that to remain," he replied. "Once we are done here we will receive new names from our witch or wizard."

"What?"

"Oh, the flatfaces," Cordiss explained. "They are different than normal flatfaces. They create things with those sticks. The males are wizards and the females are witches. You will come to understand soon enough."

Buniq was not sure she wanted to understand but her eyelids drooped heavily. These owls seemed to prefer to be active when the sun was out.

"Rest now," said Eetu. "Training will begin tomorrow. You will learn to adjust."

"Yes," said Cordiss. "Sleep."

Unable to argue, Buniq settled into her own mass of fluff and closed her eyes.

Every morning, Buniq was poked by the flatfaces. It was an odd experience because with each session her knowledge increased. Things she had never known before had appeared in her mind. In the afternoons, she and her hutch-mates would take flying lessons with the older owls. They would fly faster and longer with each passing day, pushing themselves to the point where they collapsed into their food and water dishes. Being nocturnal no longer mattered. They didn't need the shroud of darkness to hunt anymore.

Now, Buniq could find Deab Pennywinkle in the kitchen at 475 Weisbenger Ave, Hufflepuff Hill, Wales, UK, SA34 0HY. She still wasn't sure why or how she knew what she knew. But she did.

The last part of their training was perhaps the hardest to understand. It had nothing to do with delivering packages or letters. Before they would be divided up into their respective careers they would be forced to… mate. Buniq was paired with another Snowy Owl who worked for _The Daily Prophet_. She had her eggs and hatched them and they too were taken by the wizards.

It was the worst thing in the world to say goodbye to her owlets.

A witch came by the reserve one day and she seemed rather like an owl herself with her large glasses, round body, and shawl that hung over her shoulders like wings. Her fluffy brown hair stuck up like the feathered ears of a few of the owls there and her thin, beaky nose completed the look.

"I need a load for school," she said. "Give me the most even-tempered and beautiful owls you have."

Buniq was among those chosen.

This particular week, children had been in-and-out of the pet store choosing cats and owls. One wizard thought a toad was a good pet for his nephew. Buniq and all the other owls thought of toads as food. Even some of the cats thought of toads as food. That poor child. Not to mention the toad purchased was the sorriest excuse of an amphibian in that entire store. No loyalty, constantly complained, and longed for the marsh which he had never been to.

He should've been grateful somebody wanted him. It was an honor to be chosen. Some pets were here for so long they'd given up hope of adoption.

"Morning, Crookshanks," Buniq called.

"What's so good about it?" the orange monstrosity growled as he passed.

Crookshanks was the oddest looking of all the cats in the shop. His bowlegs gave him an odd gait and he was at least twice the size of an average cat, yet he wasn't fat. His face was squashed like he had an unfortunate run-in with a tree but he claimed he was born that way and his mother had the same face.

He was also cranky and didn't like any of the witches and wizards who came into the shop. Buniq thought he was absolutely hilarious with his dry humor and snarky comments of the types of flatfaces who entered the shop. Whether they were the sort to truly love pets or if they simply wanted one for the aesthetic.

If she were honest, Hedwig wanted a family. She wanted someone who needed her. Someone who would let her fly to far-off places.

The bell to the shop rang and the largest creature Buniq had ever seen entered the shop. The top of his furry head brushed the ceiling and he crouched low.

"Mornin'," he said cheerfully. His voice was deep and rough but oddly pleasant.

"Good morning, Hagrid," said the shopkeeper, Vidalia. "I'm afraid I don't have anything more exotic than the bejeweled tortoise. Certainly not enough for you."

Florence lifted her head indignantly and slowly crept along the counter. She was incredibly vain and incredibly proud of her shell.

"Oh, I'm not lookin' for a pet for me, Vidalia," the furry creature, Hagrid, said. "This is a birthday present for a special little feller. Needs a friend. Don' think he's much of a cat person." He hummed and scanned the reptiles and amphibians. "No need fer a toad. No, those wen' outta style long before I went ter Hogwarts."

Hogwarts!

Buniq hopped in her cage and flapped noisily getting the attention of Hagrid. She clicked her tongue and sang one of the songs Mother taught her, much to the irritation of the owls around her.

Hagrid leveled his hairy face to hers and she could see that he was, in fact, a flatface. Just a rather large one.

 _"Pick me!"_ she sang.

"How much fer this white one?" he asked.

"Ten galleons," said Vidalia.

Hagrid pulled out the metal which wizards exchanged and lifted Buniq's cage off of the metal hook. She never understood what was precious about the metal. She once thought they ate it but that didn't seem to be true.

Whistling a haunting tune, Hagrid strolled down the cobblestoned road of Diagon Alley. Buniq twisted and turned her head taking it all in. She opened her beak to taste the air and was immediately overwhelmed. There was so much movement. So much chatter.

It was wonderful.

Hagrid stopped outside an unremarkable looking shop. Buniq looked at the sign and read: _Ollivander's Wand Shop_. The large man rapped his knuckles against the window.

"Happy Birthday, Harry," he called.

Buniq tried to peer inside but she was already being swung around towards the door to meet her person. She wasn't sure if Harry was a male or female name but she was eager either way.

The door opened and a bell jingled and out walked the skinniest flatface she had ever seen. He had brown skin, a pronounced nose, and stunning green eyes. He also had a crazy crop of curls sprouting from his head and a thin metal pair of circles over his eyes. She didn't understand why some flatfaces needed them. Crookshanks said it was because they were blind like bats. If that were true then why didn't they use echolocation like L'il the resident bat at Magical Menagerie?

"She's mine?" said Harry taking the cage.

Buniq continued to stare at this human. She stared him right in the eye and he stared back. A small smile crossed his face and his eyes softened. Something swelled inside Burniq's chest. He was… adorable.

"I think I'll call her Hedwig."

Hedwig.

It was a far stretch from Buniq but… yes. Yes, Hedwig would do.

Hedwig clicked her tongue and made a vow.

She was going to protect this young wizard with her life. He was her wizard.

Harry Potter.


End file.
